The Way To Teach

Written by dhammacaro

In this very world, there are many ways of learning and teaching. The thing is that we students need to find our own way of learning in order to help ourselves. In the same way, we teachers also need to find our own teaching style to benefit our students. Here is a Chinese story, which gives a good example of the way of learning and teaching should be. Here it is:

Once upon a time, there was a young traveller who travelled across a snow-covered desert. In the late night it was so cold that he lay on the ground and gave up. As he was dying from the cold weather on the roadside, he heard the sound of a carriage. The young traveller looked up and saw an old man driving a horse carriage, he begged him to give him a lift. The old man scolded him and hit him with a whip. The young man was so angry with the old man that he stood up and ran after the carriage. When he had almost reached the carriage, the old man slowed down the horses, seemingly to wait for him. When the man was close to the carriage, the old man spurred horses on.

Then the young man quickened his pace by hanging on. The old man slowed the horses down a couple more times when he almost reached the carriage. Only when the young man had warmed up and was exhausted did the old man stop the carriage and gave him a lift. The old man told the young man, “I scolded you and hit you because I wanted you to fight for your life. You should not have given up in such horrible weather.” When the young man understood this, he thanked the old man for his good teaching. Since then, whenever the young man faced any obstacle in his life, he thought of the old man’s teaching.

It is a good teaching that tells us that we should not give up to any obstacle in life. We should stand up and fight it. There is a saying: Laziness prevents us from success. This teaches us that we should not surrender to obstacles but put more effort in to fight with them. When we fall down, we should try to get up again. We should force ourselves to make an effort, because if we don’t, no one else will help us. The way the old man taught in story is a good way of reminding us when we feel lazy that we should just stand up and fight with it. It is in this way that success awaits us.